Regex Blaster

Nice game!

We made a similar game several years ago for the Pyweek game competition, but there wasn't the fun "letter invaders" style that this one has.

https://pyweek.org/e/RegExExpress/

I really like your implementation!

Might be good to limit some of the special operators to give more focus -- otherwise the early levels are a bit too solvable with ".*"

I don't understand the first "combat" level. There's no real defining pattern separating the good from bad hex strings, so it's just a typing speed contest to type all the enemy patterns, right? What am I missing?

Wow really cool! Genuinely fun, and educational at the same time.

One usability request: after firing a regex, could the text box be cleared? It's not hard to hit Ctrl+A and start typing again, but it does add a bit of friction. (I can send a PR)

Nice game!

We made a similar game several years ago for the Pyweek game competition, but there wasn't the fun "letter invaders" style that this one has.

https://pyweek.org/e/RegExExpress/

I really like your implementation!

Might be good to limit some of the special operators to give more focus -- otherwise the early levels are a bit too solvable with ".*"

Every vibe coded site is too dark and the text is too small.

This is really funny ;D Gives Tetris vibes and is executed beautifully.

This looks like something I would vibe code with Google's Gemini. Interesting concept.

Fun interactive game!

Cool idea! I shall give it a try :)

TL;DR: I think you should still learn regex, even though AI has made it a "useless" skill

https://mdp.github.io/2026/03/17/the-kids-are-alright-and-th...

TL;DR: I think you should still learn regex, even though AI has made it a "useless" skill

https://mdp.github.io/2026/03/17/the-kids-are-alright-and-th...

As far as I can tell, the first combat level enemies all start with "ALERT-" and have exactly 3 digits.

This is really funny ;D Gives Tetris vibes and is executed beautifully.

Wow really cool! Genuinely fun, and educational at the same time.

One usability request: after firing a regex, could the text box be cleared? It's not hard to hit Ctrl+A and start typing again, but it does add a bit of friction. (I can send a PR)

Cool idea! I shall give it a try :)

This looks like something I would vibe code with Google's Gemini. Interesting concept.

Fun interactive game!

Every vibe coded site is too dark and the text is too small.

This is fair, although I ask for it to be dark themed to match what I think was the style of typing game I remember growing up with (it's been a while). Bumped up the font though.

I could envision the style even before clicking on the site.

They all have this rounded box design as well. I wonder where that came from, I don't think it was a predominant style before.

And all the text is grey-on-grey and basically unreadable. Not to even mention accessibility.

Maybe because it 1337 hackerman-style, or something.

And not playtested at all :D

Every vibecoded site have this same dark look with shining hue-gradient borders, can't wait for the future the entire web be filled with this generic look

What evidence do you have that this is vibe coded?

As far as I can tell, the first combat level enemies all start with "ALERT-" and have exactly 3 digits.

sorry, second combat level. It's all 6 digit hex color strings, some good some bad.

I could envision the style even before clicking on the site.

And all the text is grey-on-grey and basically unreadable. Not to even mention accessibility.

This is fair, although I ask for it to be dark themed to match what I think was the style of typing game I remember growing up with (it's been a while). Bumped up the font though.

My top complaint is that if I've successfully used a pattern, I want my text removed. I keep forgetting to backspace a bunch, then get frustrated that my pattern isn't working.

Other than that, great game!

Next time please ask it to respect system dark/light mode preference, it's trivial to do, especially for an LLM which can spin up light/dark alternatives easily.

They all have this rounded box design as well. I wonder where that came from, I don't think it was a predominant style before.

And not playtested at all :D

Maybe because it 1337 hackerman-style, or something.

Every vibecoded site have this same dark look with shining hue-gradient borders, can't wait for the future the entire web be filled with this generic look

I vibe code web apps with Google's Gemini and I think it actually mimics Google's UI and UX because I see similarities between my vibe coded web apps and Google's web apps.

What evidence do you have that this is vibe coded?

Just based on vibes.

Because it looks exactly the same and feels as janky as 99% of vibecoded web apps

sorry, second combat level. It's all 6 digit hex color strings, some good some bad.

Ah, I see. Yeah, that one definitely took me multiple attempts to see what it wanted.

I believe that the "enemies":

1. Must start with "#"

2. Must be exactly 6 hex digits

3. Must be lowercase

Next time please ask it to respect system dark/light mode preference, it's trivial to do, especially for an LLM which can spin up light/dark alternatives easily.

considering free windows being light theme only, it should be a button, not a "system default"

My top complaint is that if I've successfully used a pattern, I want my text removed. I keep forgetting to backspace a bunch, then get frustrated that my pattern isn't working.

Other than that, great game!

I vibe code web apps with Google's Gemini and I think it actually mimics Google's UI and UX because I see similarities between my vibe coded web apps and Google's web apps.

But that's a different style from the these colorful border rounded boxes that I think Claude in particular loves to produce.

Just based on vibes.

Because it looks exactly the same and feels as janky as 99% of vibecoded web apps

Ah, I see. Yeah, that one definitely took me multiple attempts to see what it wanted.

I believe that the "enemies":

1. Must start with "#"

2. Must be exactly 6 hex digits

3. Must be lowercase

Ohhhhh I swore there were friendlies with lowercase too! Thank you!!

considering free windows being light theme only, it should be a button, not a "system default"

There should be a button too, but it's simple to add a line so that it also defaults to any provided preference.

By "free windows" do you just mean an unactivated copy of Windows? That doesn't prevent the user from configuring their preference in the browser itself.

… is that even legal to do for microsoft? Are there no requirements to adhere to certain standards? Would have thought that is part of it.

That's fine, too. Either way, give the user the choice.